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May 2009 
Muscles of Mind
The Daily Buddha
Good Day,
For almost 7 years now I have worked out doing strength training or cardio. I have practiced meditation for about half of that. Why compare the two? They are both disciplines that have more in common than you might think.
Both are subtle and demanding skills to master. They each require mindfulness, alertness, persistence, patience, discipline and ingenuity - sometimes to extraordinary degrees. Like a strong agile body, trained to take whatever challenge is thrown at it - a strong mind can also be agile, pliable and prepared. The skills of concentration, observation and discernment give us a mind that can pierce any fog. Although mental training and strength training may physically be of different natures, I can say that meditation is more of a workout than you might think.
If you have ever worked out or had a exercise routine in your life then some of the following analogies may be familiar:
Know Your Anatomy
If you want to strengthen a particular muscle, you need to know something about it - where it's located, what it does, and what exercises work it. The same can be said for understanding your mind. You see the mind has this wonderful ability - the potential to observe itself (now think about that!). So read up on it, know something about your mind and how it works. Spend a little time getting to know your own processes.
Start. Period
You don't wait until you are big and strong to start strength training or other physical routines, so why would you wait until you CAN concentrate to start spending a few minutes a day with yourself in meditation or quiet time? Only by using what you have, be it a small muscle or a little concentration will you become stronger or more steady.
Establish A Routine
You are in this for the long haul. Like any good workout set some time aside, plan your schedule and stick to it. Just like lifting weights or running, you need to practice to work up to your full potential. In mental training it is discipline that makes you observant and it is this observation that enables insight to see. Stick to your schedule even when you may not feel like sitting quietly or meditating. This will develop strength and it's also the reason it's called practice.
Balance
In strength training you use focus, strength and intensity to develop muscle. When any of these are absent or out of balance your results are diminished. The same can be said for mental training or meditation. You use virtue, concentration and discernment to make your mind and it's thoughts allies and not distractions.
Pace Yourself
You can't go too fast too soon in strength training and this is also true in meditation or mental training routines. Your ability to know when to push and when to slow down will come with time as you stay with your routine. Learn how to read your progress. Learn to judge what is working and what is not. You will then be able to connect with what is producing the improvements you seek.
Never Lose Sight
When you establish your priorities, make sure you take steps to reach them, don't simply say "one day." It can be said that we should spend at least as much time on minds as we do our bodies. After all, someday we will all be forced to lay down this body, no matter how fit or strong we have made it, but you will never be forced to lay down the strengths you've built into the mind.
Peace and Love, Jim
Access: Public
practice grooves the pathways to a certain destination; whether it be physical strength or raw memory, the repetition eventually becomes us.
the “establishing a routine” is the key element I think. then you can start practicing a skill without even thinking about it; it's automatic now.
great post
Well put, and yes having a routine is key. Without it we may never see are realize the poetential we all possess. As you stated - through routine we can become more automatic in our skills.
Thanks for the comments!
TDB
Its funny, I have recently begun to think of meditation as a sport. Rock climbing—Everest seems apt.
One thing that I will share with you though. After 11 years of meditation. I will say that the first stage increased my concentration. The second stage introduced mental absorbtion and blissful states. The third stage—the present one is built upon the reveal of universal truths and wisdom. Like climbing a cliff, it is dangerous because. I managed to create even more suffering through developed concentration because it also increased my ability and ambition. My mind was not rested permanently upon a wholesome, un-self oriented “platform.” It rested on old values. So a word to the wise, if you wish, please look into the insights of some of the meditation giants of the past, so that your wisdom, insight and progress grows quickly, evenly, peacefully and stably. For me the “self” had to be routed before the witness could take full charge. Even then, its a tricky sport. Do you agree?
Yes completely. I also feel this is part of the overall process and transformation that is taking place. Some of the old wise masters referred to this as the “waterfall state” wherein one's ability to see clearly brings forth a torrent of thoughts, emotions, and reactions. I would agree that this was the most precarious period of my own practice. Guidance is important here to keep the new student from becoming nihilistic or losing their groundings. Suffering is greatly increased here at first, but we also come to understand it… its causes - which you so eloquently put as “self”. Tricky indeed.
Thanks for the great comment!
Good to meet you. ;-)
A couple of days ago my meditation felt more scattered, especially at night. The evenings always provide a “steeper climb.” (for reasons that I won't go into here.) Then I remembered a technique. I will share it plus a few others which used in concert may help.1. Staring mentally at the tongue. Placing your consciousness on your tongue has the effect of stopping thought. You can actually mentally “stare” at any point in the body after using the tongue and get a similar result. Using the middle of the chest is very pleasurable and gives a sense of openness like “an empty drum.” Staring into the middle of the head causes the mind to open up.2. Momentarily stopping your breath, then making your breath finer and finer while inducing your body to relax to its limit stops thought.3. Listening to the sound in your inner ear which becomes louder with the level of relaxation and openness indicates the level of absorbtion and energy in your nervous system (if you are sonically inclined).4. Finally making the entire body relax all at once. If there is tension anywhere in the body the mind will be “rapid.” When the body relaxes the mind slows “the flood of thought.”
Writing this down is helping me also. Thanks for the conversation.